5 comments:

Obama not only won - he totally kicked some ass. He totally dominated the show. He was like a professional athlete competing in the Special Olympics - his victory was that clear.

I heard Edwards was #2 and Clinton was #3, but the margin was so slim that for all practical purposes Edwards and Clinton were tied. Everyone else was single digits. People are already talking of dropping out. Come on - at least wait for the next small state primary!

Keep in mind that even though some candidates were in single digits, they may have more support than that.

For example, in my precinct Richardson had 54 of the 565 people after the first division, but since he didn't have 15% of the attendees, his group wasn't viable.

Therefore, on the second division people in the Richardson group had to align with a viable group, persuade others to join the Richardson group, or remain non-viable.

A Clinton person got shouted down, but an Obama person offered a deal: If Richardson's group would go to Obama, he'd send two delegates for Richardson to the county convention. Several of us went to Obama, but others went elsewhere.

In the end, Obama got 8 delegates, Clinton 4, and Edwards 3. Two of the eight Obama delegates will be for Richardson at the county convention in March, but Obama reports them all as his delegates.

I want to add that since I suspected Richardson would not be viable, I thought long and hard about my second choice: Obama or Edwards? I asked several people I respect and admire in the peace and justice community, and their choices (for a viable candidate) were almost unanimously either Obama or Edwards. Nobody supported Clinton.

The lead organizer of a community organizing group I work with said, "Obama was an organizer after all and I don't see how you can do that and grow up an African American male in the United States without some pretty strong opinions about what needs to change in our country." That helped tip the scales.

Oddly, the issue that led me to Richardson helped drive me away from Edwards. Edwards's change in his Iraq policy a day or two before the election fueled my doubts that stemmed from his voting record.

If he can continue to "communicate" like he did last night in his victory speech, he will be the next president. We can only hope.It was a good day in America yesterday when Mr. Obama won. Wasn't it nice to have a happy good day of historic significance?